Perspective shifts, domestic terrorism, and shades of Heavy Rain and PlayStation Home are all present in this upcoming Rainbow 6 installment.

There you are -- sitting at home watching the news or browsing your iPad. Your negligee-wearing wife presents both herself and a little cupcake to commemorate your birthday; moments after blowing the candle yet before you can get intimate with her, the doorbell rings. And that's when everything goes wrong -- serious men storm in; they restrain your wife; and they knock you out despite your attempt to defend your family and home. When you come to, they mock you for making money off of home foreclosures while strapping a bomb vest to your body, and tell you that if you don't go with them to Times Square, they will kill your wife and child.

Fast forward a bit and you're trapped in a van on the Brooklyn Bridge. Everything that can go wrong is in the midst of going wrong. You're under fire, the men who kidnapped you are busy shouting or dying, and one of them reiterates the "get to Times Square or they die" threat. The doors open and the Brooklyn Bridge lies under siege. Everyone around you is either shooting or screaming or dying. Men in black body armor assault you from multiple angles as you race your way down the bridge. Then, the perspective shifts, and you make a realization: the armor-clad foes who have been raining down assault rifle fire -- the terrorizing enemy -- turn out to be Rainbow Six operatives. That is, from your perspective of a civilian-forced-into-suicide-bomber, the heroes of Rainbow 6 Patriots have become the enemy. And now in Rainbow's perspective, the innocent civilian is now the primary target. This perspective shift (which occurs rarely in the game, so don't mistake this for multi-perspective action a la Call of Duty) reinforces one of the primary points of Patriots: anyone can be the enemy.

This sequence (which is mostly reproduced in the above target video -- some dialogue has been tweaked and the art assets are different, but the demonstration I see is a live gameplay version of the above scenario) gives a distinctly unsettling impression -- which seems to be in line with creative director David Sears and the rest of the development team's goal with Patriots. "From our [Rainbow Six Vegas] post-launch data, people couldn't really remember why the characters were there doing the things they were doing, or sometimes even their names," notes Sears. By aiming the story inward -- where the biggest terrorist threat doesn't come from a foreigner with a missile launcher downing an aircraft, but from the disgruntled former factory worker targeting the local metro -- the developers have already made Patriots' story stand out. Lead campaign designer Phillipe Therien notes that the feel is somewhat timeless; even though it was conceived and written at least a year ago, the story gives off a, "What if someone took some of the ideas and frustrations behind Occupy Wall Street, but added direct violence to the message" vibe. Therien thinks that even when that movement has passed by Patriots' 2013 release, that there will be some other outlet of American anger that will keep Patriots' plot contemporary.

Sears goes on to talk about how said plot focuses on the True Patriots -- an amalgamation of disenfranchised military veterans and frustrated Americans led by a charismatic former military officer named Jonah Tredway -- and Rainbow's (including your commanding officer James Wolfe, who seems to follow the Jack Bauer from 24 method of taking down terrorists) efforts to neutralize him. How it's a three-act story that has Rainbow investigating and preventing Tredway's multiple plans; "this might be the first installment where Rainbow gets to an incident before the first responders or the crime scene tape," he quips. He notes that most of the game takes place in America -- in locations as iconic as Times Square in New York City, and as low-key yet seedy due to their isolation as the Salton Sea -- but recognizes that Rainbow is an international organization, and some missions (in both the campaign and the multiplayer) take place outside of the U.S. Still, the narrative focus, and the reason that Patriots stands out, is the idea that terrorism can now come from anywhere, and that no one is safe.

Click the image above to check out all Rainbow 6 Patriots screens.

Therien reflects on this basic theme; "we want to show you that the enemy has a life, or an agenda. That it's not always an easy, 'kill the bad guy' decision. That's why we sometimes change the perspective -- to show you more and give you a little bit of doubt when it comes time to pull the trigger." It's why the developers have you play a reluctant suicide bomber -- one whose day starts with small button prompts for interactions like, "kiss wife" or "blow candle" or "stroke cheek", which then give way to erratically bouncing directives like, "hold R1 to prevent detonation", which reminds me of Heavy Rain somewhat. It's why you might play a first responder, like a paramedic or a local cop, and be taken aback when dudes in body armor and assault rifles pop out of nowhere and start yelling at you. It's why the developers throw in small moments of pause, such as the player receiving a command to disable NYPD officers who are about to corner the bomber because they might prematurely cause the detonation (though, like the time when Arnold goes non-lethal in Terminator 2, this comes from shooting the cops in the legs).

Comments (14)

"TP"

Thanks for the interesting article, Mr. Nguyen. You make a fair point that the "True Patriots"' anger at home foreclosures is probably inspired by the Occupy movement, but the red state reference to "field dressing her like a deer" plus the group's initials ("TP") indicate a hedging counter-allusion to the Tea Party.

Ok, but then..

What exactly is the point of even having that quicktimey stuff in there at all, if it's just window dressing?

Maybe it's just a function of the fact that I'm completely burnt out on these on-rails first person shooters in the style of COD, but I just don't see what these QTE-lite elements bring to the table in the absence of any kind of choice. It wouldn't even have to be that substantitive, just at least give me a choice to "hug" in addition to "kiss." At least I would feel like I changed the narrative in the slightest way.

As it stands, it seems like devs are starting from the on-rails, rollercoaster mentality of COD and then giving you an option to opt out of certain parts of the track. Not the most enticing prospect, in my opinion.

@zachwulf

That is how I felt when I read what people expected from Metal Gear Solid 2. The idea of HIDING bodies was such a rediculous thing in my head, I figured we were at elast 2 generations from being there. Konami/Kojima made it happen on the ps2. So while I agree it takes time, and a lack of putting shareholders first, I think its possible and worth while.

I love the look of this so far, but....

Sounds like the

developers have gotten the message about the complexity of the controls and interface in the Rainbow Six games cramping the fun factor. If they can really see this through to a coherent package, I'm all in. I'd rather see this release on the Xbox 720 or PS4 though so we can finally see some of the limitations of the older systems put to rest to try something different.